Naruto:A New Prophecy
by Hypnomagica
Summary: AU: Naruto is the son of Minato but not Kushina, complex plots, dangerous enemies, a new prophecy and a whole set of new problems. Intelligent but very different take on Naruto. No official pairings. Extremely well thought out. Will be epic in length. NOT SUPER NARUTO Please Read and Review.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own Naruto.**

**Naruto: A Different Prophecy**

**Prologue**

Namikaze Minato felt the world grow still as he closed his eyes, allowing a single tear to be shed for the woman he had just held in his arms during her dying breath. A strange silence filled his mind, suddenly he was deaf to the shrieks and roars of the battle raging ahead of him. There was only the gentle breeze ruffling his hair like an affectionate lover and the small, nearly weightless bundle he now held in his arms.

Another tear shed for the small, frail creature he would leave alone in this cruel world with a terrible burden on its shoulders. How much destruction and death had already been caused from his mistake? As Hokage it was his responsibility to protect Konohagakure, instead he had nearly doomed it and the entire world. To worsen matters, rather than fix the problem it was all he could do to simply patch it up and hope for the best, leaving the next generation to deal with the calamity to come.

'_At least Sarutobi-sama knows.' _He thought to himself, hoping to alleviate some of the crushing guilt which weighed on his conscience like an anvil. _'He will see to Naruto's training, protect him, guide him, and when the time comes Naruto will succeed where I met my greatest failure.'_

As he rushed into battle for the last time in his life, hands already forming the complex seals and his chakra gaining shape and intent, Namikaze Minato allowed one final tear to spill from his eye for all the suffering and pain he had caused and was yet to be caused by his own hands.

The night air filled with the indignant roars and anguished cries of the great entity known only as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox as its very soul was pulled from its body and a small, blond haired creature whimpered quietly in incomprehension as the being was somehow pulled into its navel, Minato Namikaze felt his world growing black.

Finally the unbearable strain to his chakra was gone, swaying on his feet, the Fourth Hokage placed the final seal on his son, Naruto and allowed the creature known only as Shinigami to part his soul forever from his body. Only one last thought managed to form as his soul descended into eternal chaos and torment.

'_Forgive me, Naruto.'_

-PAGE BREAK-

Some hours later three elderly shinobi, each greatly respected by ninja around the world stood over a small, wooden crib with a sleeping blonde infant inside, the child's features were hidden in the shadow cast by the flickering candle that was the only illumination within the small space. The room they stood in was circular with no windows and only a single door made from the same sandy-brown stone as the rest of the room. The floor had strange lines and glyphs drawn along an outside ring and another, smaller ring in the exact center of the room. In the center of this ring stood the crib which was surrounded by Sarutobi Hiruzen, Third Hokage of Konohagakure, known as "The Professor" in his youth and even "The God of Shinobi" by his enemies. He stood now an old, balding man whose remaining hair stood up in defiant spikes around the sides and back of his head like defensive pikes along the ridges of a mountain.

His two companions, legendary shinobi in their own right were; Mitokado Homura, a tallish man compared to the others, with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair which stood up in much the same manner as Hiruzen's. On top of being the Third Hokage's best friend and long time teammate, he was also Konoha's foremost master of Sealing Techniques with the Fourth Hokage deceased.

Utatane Koharu, the sole female of the trio wore her hair in a tight bun which pulled her already severe expression into one which could very likely have curdled milk and sent a baby in the middle of being born scampering back into its mother's uterus. She was also a great logistician, a skilled, if rather ruthless diplomat, and a powerful shinobi in her own right.

The air in the room was thick with tension as the three elders glared at each other, the walls, and the blonde child between them in turns. Finally, it was Koharu who broke the palpable silence.

"Hiruzen, you cannot seriously mean to raise this child on your own can you? You're the acting Hokage again with Minato gone, and an old man besides! You cannot really expect to be able to provide this boy with the sort of attention he needs. Even if Homura and I were to accept this entire fantastic tail, including this supposed prophecy of yours. Whatever else he might be, what I see before me is an infant boy with all the needs and troubles that come along with such a thing."

Hiruzen took a deep draw from the large pipe he held in his left hand before exhaling with a deep world-weary sigh.

"Be that as it may, Koharu, Minato's final request was that I look after his son. The very last words he ever spoke to anyone in this world were spent on wringing a blood oath from me to guide and protect him with my life, after all that he has done for this village you cannot truly believe that I would go back on my sworn oath, can you?"

The elderly Hokage gave the woman a look which clearly conveyed exactly what he would think of her if she should so much as suggest such a thing. Nonetheless, she would not be deterred.

"Hiruzen, in the name of all the gods, no one is suggesting you abandon the boy in an alleyway!" The woman snapped irritably, clearly offended at the suggestion that she would advise such a disgraceful act as going back on a blood-oath made to a fallen comrade.

"But you must see reason. Brilliant as you are, even you cannot possibly give both Konoha and the boy the amount of time and attention they need! Give the boy to a nice orphanage that you can trust and keep a close eye on him, that way he can be raised around children his own age and build relationships with the children of this village. Minato's bastard he may be but let us not forget that he is also the container of the most powerful of all the bijuu, instilling strong loyalty and ties to this village are of paramount importance….." She hesitated for a moment before continuing in a subdued yet deeply convicted tone, "even more so than your blood oath to the Fourth."

Hiruzen's gaze sharpened into a glare towards the woman and for the barest of moments the small room was filled with an oppressive killing intent before it disappeared as quickly as it had come. The old man let out a weary sigh as he took another long draw from his pipe and switched his focus to the other man in the room.

"You've been rather quiet, Homura. What do you think about all of this?"

Homura wore a carefully constructed neutral expression and said nothing for several long moments after Hiruzen's inquiry. Finally he gave a thoughtful stroke to the large, scruffy beard he had growing from his sideburns while gazing intently at the infant before him and answered in a measured tone.

"Koharu has a point, raising Naruto on your own does not seem especially practical, on the other hand it hardly seems like it would be fair to Naruto or the promise you made to the Fourth to just throw him into an orphanage. Perhaps…" He seemed to hesitate here, more for dramatic purpose than any actual hesitance about speaking his mind. These three shinobi had been comrades and friends for decades and rarely minced words with each other.

"…perhaps I could take him in. All of my children died in combat before giving me any grandchildren and the house has been so quiet since Mayuri passed."

A moment of complete silence passed before Koharu let loose a derisive bark of laughter and turned her eyes accusingly in Homura's direction.

"You have never been very good at subterfuge, Homura but even you should be a little more subtle than this! And I suppose you think we should simply stand aside and allow you to train up your own little pet jinchuuriki, is that it?"

"What sort of accusation is that, Koharu?" The man retorted almost incredulously. "The only one who even mentioned anything about the boy's condition as a tailed beast container is you. Sounds like perhaps you are projecting a bit."

The old woman blanched for a moment before firing back her own response in a clipped tone. "Well pardon me for pointing out the elephant in the room! Shall we all pretend that this boy is just an _ordinary_ bastard of the late Fourth Hokage then?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm, killing intent began to slowly fill the room once again, only this time it seemed to build on top of itself as each of the powerful shinobi added their own in response.

"Enough!" Hiruzen interjected before Homura could return fire. "I shall hear no more talk of anything even hinting at attempting to train young Naruto to be some sort of weapon. There is a reason I did not invite Danzou to this meeting of ours, you know?

"As for your offer, Hotaru, I appreciate it, truly I do. But doing that would feel far too much like I was pawning off my responsibilities on to you. I made the blood oath and it is my duty to look after Minato's _son."_ He looked pointedly towards the old woman in the group as he added emphasis to the word before taking another draw from his pipe.

Hotaru stroked his beard in contemplation before responding in his normally measured tone. "Perhaps we might come to a compromise then? What if you raise Naruto in your home but allow Koharu and I to visit in order help raise him?"

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows in what may have been acceptance before Koharu made her opinion of the matter clear with a decidedly un-lady-like snort. "Even with all three of us, he would hardly have anyone looking after him. I'm normally busy with the Logistics and Administration department and you have your civilian correspondents and sealing scrolls to maintain. With Hiruzen once again acting Hokage there would still not be anywhere near enough time to properly care for an infant. Not to mention the simple fact of my being far too old and cantankerous a kunoichi to spend my days chasing after some snot-nosed brat. There is a reason why I never married nor chose to have children.

'_I thought that was because you have been hopelessly in love with Danzou your whole life.' _Hiruzen kept this rather unflattering thought to himself though and took yet another draw from his pipe before speaking. He chose the tone he normally saved for official decrees and council meetings to convey the finality of his decision.

"You both make descent arguments but I have decided on a compromise. I will find Naruto a nanny who will care for his day-to-day needs in a house separate from Konoha proper in the hope that any sort of prejudice or fear harbored by the population of Konoha due to his condition might go unnoticed by him for the first few years of his life. The three of us, and Danzou, will make it a point to give him regular visits in order to ensure that he is being taken care of, as well as to allow us to contribute to his growth into an exceptional young man."

His two companions looked at each other with nonplussed expressions before Koharu seemed to voice what both were thinking.

"Why bring Danzou into this? You'll have no choice but to explain why young Naruto's up-bringing is of such importance that we would be mandated to go. I realize you made a promise to Minato but with all respect he made no such oath."

Homura gave no sign of affirmation to this opinion but showed no signs of disagreeing with Koharu either.

Hiruzen merely offered them both a tired smile before taking the longest drag from his pipe yet and releasing it all in a heavy sigh.

"Because as much and often as I disagree with the man on matters of policy, he is one of the finest men and shinobi I have ever known, in the proper amounts and with my own influence to counter-balance him, I believe he will be an great asset to Naruto's development.

But he must never know anything of what I have told the two of you. Should I die before either of you, the responsibility of this knowledge will pass on to you so that you may inform whoever succeeds me. As for how I will explain to Danzou why I want him to assist in Naruto's up-bringing, it should be obvious that the moment the three of us take an active role in raising our local jinchuuriki, I will hardly be able to stop him from participating. "

Hiruzen allowed a sly smile to cross his lips as he pointed this out, unable to contain a certain sense of morbid satisfaction at being able to manipulate Danzou with other people actually realizing it.

Neither made any sign of protest or dissent, which the Third Hokage took to be acceptance.

-PAGE BREAK-

"Would you mind explaining to me what exactly the three of you are playing at, Hiruzen?"

Shimura Danzou stood in front of the grand desk of the Third Hokage with his perpetual frown firmly in place as ever. In fact, Hiruzen found himself suspecting that the only reason it had not deepened was out of fear that if Donzou were to scowl any harder his face might actually crack.

The man before him stood at roughly the same height as himself, with an infuriatingly full head of brown hair that Hiruzen liked to think was probably fake, most of his head and the right side of his face was covered in plain white bandage and he wore a black cowl over the right side of his body where Hiruzen knew his right arm was in a slight after permanent disablement some years ago.

The Third put on his best expression of confounded innocents while taking a long, satisfying draw from his beloved pipe.

"I am afraid I can't say that I know what you're talking about, old friend. Would you care to elaborate?"

Danzou's face made a series of odd twitching movements which Hiruzen feared for a moment was a sign of it actually breaking before answering in a tone of clearly forced calm.

"What I am talking about, _old friend, _is the weekly visits you, Homura, and Koharu have been making to the residence of one Daikaze Naruto, neither of those two would tell me anything about it at merely insisted that I take it up with you, so here I stand.

My question, what exactly are you playing at here?"

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow at the belligerent tone and rare loss of control from his friend and had trouble containing a self-satisfied sigh. He had had no idea that this little bit of trickery would work so well!

"Why, I simply thought it would be descent of me to give some of my spare time to visit the only son of our villages greatest hero. It may be that I mentioned something similar to the two of my old comrades that still take to time to make social calls every now and again."

"Do you take me for a fool, Hiruzen? You're trying to turn that boy into your own personal pawn and you've dragged Koharu and Homura into your scheme as well! Don't think I've not figured out your scheming to turn that little boy into your own personal attack dog."

"Danzou," Hiruzen responded, raising his eyebrows in mock confusion, "I swear to you I meant no such thing, why, such an under-handed form of manipulation would hardly be comely of a shinobi in my station. After all, what sort of monster would train to brainwash a _child _into his own personal tool?"

Danzou stiffened at the barely concealed slight but showed no sign of backing down. Danzou had headed the "Root" initiative nearly twenty years ago, a project designed to remove shinobi of all human emotion and weakness by training them from childhood to be no more than tools to be used. Hiruzen had been adamantly against it but during the Second Great War their total shinobi population and manpower had been abysmally low and the council had been nearly unanimous in its support.

He had given in at the time until the war was over and Minato had personally championed its official disbanding. Of course Danzou was still operating it in the shadows but the organization took care of many of the more unsavory missions and neither the Third nor the Fourth Hokage were above using such a valuable resource just because it was both morally reprehensible and now highly illegal.

Danzou's reply was predictable but firm. "I would say, the sort of monster who puts the welfare of his village before all else." He growled out before continuing to the point at hand.

"If you speak the truth then I'm certain you would not mind if I were to make regular visits to the boy myself. Retirement does not exactly agree with me and I have been looking for something to help pass the time."

The man's tone had changed to something that from another man might have been called cordial but from him it sounded a bit more like the way a wolf would speak to a rabbit in order to get it out of its home before devouring the hapless rodent.

Lucky for the Third Hokage, he was not exactly a hapless rabbit. "I don't know, Danzou. You have made it quite clear where your mindset is on what should be done with the boy. The fact that the first conclusion you jumped to when you heard of our visits was an attempt to brainwash the boy is extremely telling in regards to what _you _would use such visitation for.

The cycloptic man at least had the decency to look slightly abashed at this but if Shimura Danzou had ever learned what the word "surrender" meant, he had almost certainly forgotten it immediately .

"You make a fair point, Hiruzen." The man allowed, "If you grant me indefinite access to the boy I will make no attempt to brainwash him or rob him of his emotions."

"Or," Hiruzen continued for him, "will you give him any level of shinobi training until I give the "Ok" and any knowledge or equipment granted to him will be first approved by me. This is the same deal I offered Homura and Koharu, take it or leave it."

The man looked as though he had just tasted something terrible but merely bowed his head at the exact angle necessary before straightening an instant later.

"By your leave then, Hokage-sama."

**And that's all folks! Hope you enjoyed the epilogue to what is certain to be a fantastic journey! Expect the next chapter in a few days and if I have any volunteers for a beta, feel free to PM me.**

**Reviews are deeply appreciated and very motivating. Just throwing it out there.**

**See you guys next time :)**

**~Hypno**


	2. Chapter 1- The Infancy

Chapter One: The Infancy of Daikaze Naruto

"Ah! Hokage-sama! I wasn't expecting you for another hour or so, I'm afraid Naru-chan is still napping, should I go get him?"

Soatome Aya, the short, slightly portly, thirty- five year old woman whom Hiruzen had hired to be Naruto's caretaker, gave a gracious bow as the Hokage entered the surprisingly large home which he and his advisors had all agreed upon as the home which young Naruto was to grow up in. Though it was really Koharu who had made the selections for everything ranging from the pleasant, knowledgeable caretaker, to the furnishings within the house, which she had also found.

As per the agreement, all four of them had had to sign off on most of these decisions but it was Koharu who had done all the work, compiling a list of five possible caretakers and several real-estate options after a rigorous selection process. The furnishings, Hiruzen and his fellow males had simply left to their female member, with each only making a few personal requests.

The house was a comfortable two-story home with just under seven hectares of surrounding land on the property which sat on the outskirts of Konoha. Having once belonged to a retired Jounin who had passed almost three decades previously without leaving behind any will or heirs, the house had gone to the state. Due to its relative proximity from anything in the village and large estimated worth, the home had garnered no success at auctions and had simply been forgotten after several years, all of the furnishings and anything not nailed down had been sold off as the house was allowed to grow into disrepair.

Hiruzen had been slightly skeptical when Koharu had given her glowing opinion of the house after seeing it himself; the forest had already started moving to reclaim the space around the building which had once been a well-manicured yard with a lavish garden, complete with a large koi pond. The garden had grown wild, some plants having grown well beyond their prescribed plots, others having simply died out or growing gnarled and stumped due to neglect. The Pond had refilled after many rains and had been an algae infested nesting ground for mosquitoes and various insects and amphibious organisms. The wooden structures within the garden had long-since given away to mold, rot, and several species of algae, the small wooden bridge over the pond had been barely recognizable.

The house itself been had even worse off; mold and dry-rot had persisted in most of the woodwork, with much of the house being occupied by various woodland creatures. The attic and roof had been the location of nearly a hundred bird nests, with everything ranging from raccoons, muskrats, and even a rather surly beaver having taken up residence within the house proper. There was also a rather large colony of bats living in the chimney and parts of the attic.

That had been four months ago, when Naruto had been on an extended stay in the hospital, the boy was quite rather frail and sickly, Hiruzen had worried for the boy's survival for some time but he had stabilized well enough for approval to be dismissed into home custody only a week previously.

Now, after having been worked on by a team of carpenters, plumbers, gardeners, painters, and aspiring young shinobi students to make up the cheap, unskilled labor, the house looked as good as new. There were even several koi fish swimming in the pond!

A small but lively stream ran through the property, half of a kilometer away from the house itself, which boasted two floors, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full-sized kitchen, a cozy living room with a large fireplace, several smaller nooks, one of which Hiruzen had turned into a library, a small basement, and a fairly large attic.

Honestly, Hiruzen had wondered if the arrangement was not a bit too lavish once everything was done but he had already agreed to it by that time, and it fit all the parameters which he had personally asked for.

Aya was a kind, genial woman who had grown up in a family with a strong shinobi background, though she had never personally taken up the profession. She had years of education and personal experience on caring for children, having served as a midwife and nurse since she was sixteen years old. Her psychological evaluation had shown her to be a patient, altruistic woman with a strong maternal instinct though she was, unfortunately, incapable of bearing children of her own.

She had been briefly married in her early twenties to a young chuunin who had been killed in the Third Great Shinobi War less than a year after they had said their vows. Since then, Aya had dedicated her life solely to taking care of others.

Coworkers, friends, family, and loose acquaintances (Koharu was _very _through) had all said that she was completely devoted to her job and was about as emotionally well-adjusted as a human was capable of being without spontaneous ascension into Nirvana.

Personal interaction with her had confirmed all of these things to Hiruzen, he also found the she was a excellent cook, extremely courteous, soft-spoken, genial, with a good sense of humor and a radiant smile.

All told, it was the perfect house to raise a young jinchuriki in, with the perfect caretaker to raise him. It all made him slightly paranoid if he were to admit the truth to himself, with everything so perfect, he felt that something simply had to go wrong.

Well, something besides all that had already had gone wrong.

While Naruto was still in the hospital, he and Homura had taken the time to inspect the child's seal more carefully, what they found had been quite disturbing.

Along with the containing the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, there were several secondary effects, most of which Hiruzen had assumed would be there anyways. What he had not assumed was that one function of the seal would be to absorb fully half of Naruto's personally produced chakra into the seal itself. To an average adult, the effect of such a thing would be weakening but adjustable, to a shinobi such a thing could be career ending, to an infant?

The doctor whom he had trusted with that information had expressed shock that the child was still alive.

Of course, knowing what they knew, Hiruzen, Koharu, and Homura had been able guess at Minato's reasoning but they both agreed that it seemed wildly excessive. Danzou had been livid when he was told and had tried to convince them to attempt to alter that particular function, to be honest, Hiruzen himself had been tempted to agree but knew that such a thing was impossible.

The chakra taken from Naruto seemed to at least partially power several other functions of the rest of the seal, any attempt to remove or alter such an integral piece might well disrupt the entire system, which could have catastrophic results, not the least of which would be the release of the giant Demon Fox the seal was supposed to be containing in the first place.

In the end, he and Homura had decided to continue to study the seal but make no attempts to alter it unless absolutely necessary.

None of them had been happy with the decision, though Himura feared that Danzou cared much less for the boy's health than he did for having such a weakened jinchuriki on his hands. Nonetheless, the four elderly shinobi had concluded that the only real solution was to simply trust in the Fourth Hokage's judgment as it was the only choice they actually had.

"Err, Hokage-sama? Are you alright?"

Hiruzen snapped out of his revere as he stood in the entrance with Aya looking at him with her brows lightly furrowed in concern. He realized with some embarrassment that she had been speaking to him, running quickly through his memory, he pieced together what had been said while his mind had been wondering off, a mental trick he had learned from countless tedious council sessions and diplomatic negotiations.

"Yes, I'm fine, Aya-chan. My apologies, I was just thinking of how much this house has changed since the first time I saw it."

He let his face fall into what he thought of as his "kindly old man" smile, crinkling his eyes genially at the woman in front of him.

"No need to wake Naru-chan, I enjoy merely watching him sleeping in his crib."

Aya smiled in understanding of this sentiment as she gave a small nod and turned to lead the Hokage up the stairs to the large bedroom she shared with the sleeping infant.

Hiruzen felt a warm stir of genuine affection as he approached the tiny bundle of blankets that slept peacefully in his wooden crib. Naruto was small, even for a child of five months, weak and sickly from having access to only half of the relatively small amount of chakra that his immature body was able to create in the first place.

The child had managed to grow almost a full head of golden-blonde hair, his eyes, when they were opened, were a brilliant shade of violet and each side of his face had three, small, whisker-like, lines across his cheeks. He was an almost inhumanly adorable baby, with fine, soft features and ridiculously large eyes which seemed to take in everything around him.

Perhaps sensing the old man looming over him, the blond infant blinked up at the old man looking over him with a smile and gave a smile stretch as he gave a soft whine while reaching up towards the familiar figure.

Hiruzen reached down toward the young boy and lifted him into his arms obligingly.

"Good afternoon, Naru-chan!" He said loudly with an exaggerated smile, poking the boy's nose with his index finger as he usually did. Naruto happily grabbed the digit with both of his hands and began gnawing on the tip, giggly throatily as he did so.

"Ah! Your grip has gotten so strong, you might break this old man's poor finger!"

So Hiruzen went about his semi-weekly visit of the child as Aya fussed over them both, getting warm goat milk for Naruto and Hiruzen's favorite tea along with her specialty sugar cookies. His visit had lasted almost an hour before the doorbell rang, sending Aya rushing away to allow Danzou to enter the house as well.

Hiruzen was vaguely surprised by this as Danzou tended to skip his sessions fairly often, he did little to disguise his lack of patience for babies and only seemed to visit often enough to ensure that Naruto remained familiar with him.

Hiruzen was sitting on the living room couch, reading a children's book to the infant who sat on his lap, animatedly pointing to various pictures and laughing while clapping his hands at the Hokage's spirited reading.

Looking up, he saw Danzou entering the room with as close as he could come to a pleasant expression on his face as Aya could be heard preparing tea for the new visitor in the kitchen.

"Danzou! Welcome, Naru-chan and I were just reading about Slug and Toad's wacky adventures. Isn't that right, Naru-chan?"

He tickled the boy's stomach as he said this, eliciting an excited warble from the blonde and Danzou merely nodded as he sat in an adjacent lounge chair.

"Exciting as I'm sure that is, Hiruzen, I have business to discuss with you." Danzou pulled out a pipe from beige-colored robes and placed it in his mouth, lighting the bowl with a small bit of fire ninjutsu. Inhaling deeply, he released his draw with a contented sigh as he leaned back into the comfortable lounge chair.

"Oh? This isn't about that message from capital, is it? Because I told my staff I could wait until tomorrow to hear from him, I imagine you probably can too." His tone was jocular as he said this but he knew that whatever his long-time friend had come to speak to him about was bound to give him a headache.

"Hmph, no it is actually about-"

"Danzou-sama, I told you, no smoking around Naru-chan!"

The elderly shinobi looked up with a startled expression as the small, brown haired nurse scolded him before setting down the tea tray she had brought out and moved to snatch the pipe from the incredulous man's mouth, snuffing it out inside the fireplace wall with finality.

"If you need to smoke so badly, go into the garden with him," she chastised further without giving Danzou a moment to interject. "Honestly! The child's sickly enough without you breathing that poison into his lungs!"

Fixing one last stern glare on the man, she proceeded to serve the tea as genially as ever, the moment of tension already apparently forgotten.

For his part, Danzou was left blinking in confusion at what had just happened as Hiruzen chuckled at the situation.

Even aged and crippled, the name of Shimura Danzou still commanded much respect and fear within the shinobi world, very few of even the most powerful shinobi within the village would openly defy him, this young woman stripping him of his favorite pipe whilst actually scolding him like a child was so unexpected to him that he still seemed unsure of how to react.

"Well, that protective streak is also why we hired her, is it not?"Hiruzen said, breaking the other man from his stunned silence as the woman once again exited the room.

"I suppose, yes. But, well, that was… unexpected." Danzou cleared his throat, still clearly uncomfortable, much to Hiruzen's deep amusement. The Hokage recalled when he had gotten that very same scolding and he had had a very similar reaction, not that his counterpart had to know that, of course.

"Anyways, on to what I wanted to speak with you about", Danzou said, pressing on with his agenda as he worked to get things back into his comfort zone, Hiruzen stifled a resigned sigh as he focused his attention on the man, one hand busily tickling Naruto's belly.

"The Uchiha are becoming increasingly belligerent, today, Fugaku ordered a police squad to apprehend two ANBU operatives, claiming that they broken jurisdictional boundaries. This must stop, it is time we taught those Uchiha a stern lesson." The man's voice had gone hard as he spoke of the event which Hiruzen was already entirely aware of and the Hokage once again found himself glad that he had won that long-ago fight in front of their sensei, he felt that in many ways, that was the fight which had made him Hokage, rather than Danzou.

"This is neither the time, nor the place, to be discussing such things, Danzou. But for the record, I've already spoken with Fugaku about this, everything has already been taken care of." Hiruzen made sure to keep his tone light and cheerful as he spoke, for fear of upsetting the child on his lap.

Danzou, however, had no such qualms, his expression only darkened as he responded. "Really? I had not heard anything about those two operatives being released."

"Obviously that's because they weren't, those operatives _were _breaking jurisdictional bounds. On top of that, they were not exactly traditional ANBU, as you are well aware. You are more to blame for this situation than any Uchiha, I'll not have you antagonizing them any further, Danzou."

Hiruzen managed to keep his tone and body language perfectly cheerful as he said this but there was still an underlining hint of steel in his voice.

Danzou had crossed the line and he knew it, he had just not known he had been caught.

"Very well, Hiruzen. But there is going to have to be a reckoning between us and them at some point, you can close your eyes to it all you want but it is going to happen anyways."

With this, the man stood up, retrieved his pipe from the fireplace mantle and walked briskly from the room.

Just as he was leaving, Naruto waved cheerfully at the man with a giggle as Hiruzen once again began tickling the infant.

_Five Months Later…._

" 'Iru-jiji!"

"Hello, Naru-chan!"

Hiruzen swooped down to lift the now eleven-month old Naruto from where his sat on the floor, playing with his multi-colored blocks. The boy laughed gleefully as he was sent soaring into the air above the old man's head, he was still quite small but the boy was quickly showing that his mind suffered from no such problems.

On the contrary, he had been picking up language with incredible speed once he had said his first word barely four months before and now he was already putting together complete sentences, albeit clumsily.

"Have you had a fun day with Aya-chan?"

"Yeah! Aya and me made cookies!" The boy flapped his arms with excitement as he said this, his large, violet eyes gleaming happily.

"You should say, "Aya and I"," Hiruzen interjected patiently as he set the child on his shoulders while they made their way to the garden.

"Yeah, Aya an' I made them!" He repeated no less happily. "And then 'Omura-jiji came and we, umm, colo'ed and had tea."

"Oh really? Where is Homura-jiji now? He didn't leave already, did he?" Hiruzen was not surprised to hear that Hiruzen had already been over, the man spent more time with Naruto then he did at his own home.

"Ummm, no, 'Omura-jiji shaid he goin' to get somethin' for Aya-tan."

"Do you know what he went to get, Naru-chan?" Hiruzen enjoyed testing the boy's ever-expanding vocabulary and memory, he never ceased to be impressed by the child who had taken greater strides towards mastering language than most children twice his age.

"Ummm, no. Aya… Aya-chan just shaid she needed sumthin'." The boy sounded reluctant as he clearly struggled to remember exactly what happened over an hour ago. Hiruzen merely chuckled to himself as they finally reached the backdoor and went outside, into the lush garden where Aya busied herself with tending to the koi pond.

Not that there was any need to, of course, a six-man gardening team came out to the property twice a week to tend to the various aspects of the large garden which had expanded in size due to Homura, Koharu, and Aya's interest, and the fact that Naruto loved it.

The garden now had three koi ponds, one of which spanned through most of the garden, five bridges, several statues, two smaller sections dedicated solely to the growth of various herbs, twenty cherry trees, several juniper trees and over a dozen maples along with various other bonsai, ferns, bushes, and of course, lots of lush, blue-green grass. The Garden itself spanned over one-and-a-half hectares, and both Homura and Koharu had plans to expand further. The walkways were made from limestone bricks and a blue, bioluminescent moss was being grown along the walkways, Homura intended for the whole garden to have thick, glowing moss growing throughout each of the walkways, the process was slow going.

Several species of exotic birds had been brought in to make the place home, including three swans, several cockatiels, five species of humming birds, two scarlet macaw, and several ducks. Homura had drawn ward seals around the garden to keep native animals from getting in to take over any territory but allowed for those birds within the garden to leave it, though they were compelled to return after an hour, or so, away. He had also allowed for a dozen squirrels and two female silver foxes to inhabit the area along with three colonies of honey bees, dozens of exotic butterfly species, various sorts of lizards including five chameleons, and two species of vole.

Of course most expenses in creating the botanical masterpiece were allotted to the training of the village's jinchuriki and therefore taken from the public funds, the rest, either Homura or Koharu, both possessing considerable wealth from their long lives as elite shinobi, paid for themselves. Homura had plans to bring in a famed sculptor artist on commission to create a few personalized statues to replace the older ones.

Hiruzen looked the other way throughout all of this because, besides them all technically doing him a favor by helping to raise Naruto, he absolutely loved walking with Naruto through the beautiful garden, as he proceeded to do.

He had already given Naruto the lecture on bees and animals in general several times before and the boy seemed to heed him, though he did not seem to fear any of them regardless of what he said. On several occasions, he had seen a bee land directly on Naruto's face without the boy making any reaction at all, on one occasion he had even petted one!

Hiruzen wondered if one of his former teammates had used some sort ninjutsu or fuinjutsu to make the animals more docile in order to ensure Naruto's safety but both had denied it, saying that they had stuck to animals that were mostly harmless for just that reason.

Whatever the case, Naruto seemed extremely attuned with nature and loved the gardens perhaps more than anyone else, constantly pleading with whatever adults were around to take him to this spot or that within.

Finally, the pair made it to Naruto's favorite spot within the garden, a small section which contained the smallest of the ponds and a particularly large cherry tree along with a large Buddha statue. Sitting down at the base of the tree with the boy on his lap, Hiruzen opened up their latest book and began reading, following along with his finger so that Naruto could see which words he was pronouncing.

They had been sitting there for nearly an hour, Hiruzen going back and reading requested passages and quizzing young Naruto on his comprehension and memory, when Homura arrived, smoking from his long pipe with a pensive expression, apparently lost in thought.

"'Omura-jiji!" Naruto called, attempting for a moment to stand, only to fall and begin crawling happily toward the bearded old man.

"Oh, Naruto-chan, Aya said you two would be here!" The older man scooped up the small child who could still not walk, despite being able to speak, into the air, lifting him into the air in the same fashion that Hiruzen had.

"Have you had a good time with Hiruzen, here?" He asked the blonde as he settled the small boy into his arms while making his way towards his, still seated, friend and taking a place beside him, placing Naruto between them.

"Yeah! Umm, 'Iru-jiji told me how, umm, the ninja he… umm, he saved the pwincess."

"Is that so?" Homura asked in exaggerated fascination. "And then what happened?"

"Umm…the…the dwagon came and…umm, he…he gave the ninja a pwesent."

"I see, well that's wonderful, but why don't you tell me what caused all this?" Hiruzen knew that Homura enjoyed testing Naruto's abilities as much as he did and the three of them sat in that place at the foot of the tree for another hour, reading, talking, and playing with their shared grandson before finally heading back towards the house.

A few hours later, both men sat on the front porch of the house, smoking their pipes on their lounge chairs.

Hiruzen heard Homura let out a particularly large draw and knew that they were about to have a troublesome conversation.

"Tensions between the ANBU and the police force are worsening; Danzou came close to openly accusing Uchiha Fugaku of having something to do with the attack of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox today."

Hiruzen took a moment to savor a lung-full of smoke before releasing it in a long exhale through his nostrils, he then took another few moments to respond.

"I know." He finally said.

And he did.

Things were getting bad between the Uchiha and the older Senju factions of the village, and Danzou was not helping thing along at all.

Hiruzen knew that Danzou wanted what he thought was best for the village. He believed that the Uchiha were too powerful and separated from the rest of the village. With most of the actual Senju clan killed in the great shinobi wars and then all but finished off by the Nine Tailed Fox attack. Only Tsunade remained and she had long since abandoned Konoha.

This left the Uchiha as the only surviving clan of the original founders of Konoha and they seemed to think that meant they should have more power in the village, Danzou, among others, disagreed. Hiruzen was not entirely sure where he stood on the issue, on the one hand, the Uchiha were the post powerful asset that Konoha now had in terms of straight combat ability and they were a strong, well organized clan with a centralized rank structure within the clan.

That was also the problem, if the Uchiha were given more authority over the general governance of Konoha, they would almost certainly work to give their clan even more power, and greater privileges. He was Hokage over all of Konoha but if the Uchiha were allowed to do as they pleased, Uchiha Fugaku, head of the Uchiha clan would be Hokage in all but name.

And that could not be allowed, the Hokage must look out for the interests of every citizen of Konoha, regardless of clan or political faction.

A long silence stretched between the two men before Homura broke it, once again releasing a deep draw from his pipe before speaking.

"Something must be done about this, Hiruzen. No more fence sitting, trying to please both parties, there needs to be some sort of decisive action done. We're still weakened from the attack, we cannot have all this in-fighting, you know as well as I that if any of our enemies discover just how divided we are becoming in our already weakened state, an attack would be almost unavoidable, and we no longer have the Yellow Flash."

Homura's voice was calm as he spoke, as always, telling Homura everything he already knew with inescapable frankness; this was why Hiruzen valued his council over any of his other advisors.

"But what should be done?" Hiruzen asked pensively, speaking as much to himself as to the man sitting beside him.

"Going to war with the Uchiha, as Danzou wants, would be suicide. Even if we defeated them, it would tear our village apart, Konoha would cease to exist. Even so, we cannot allow the Uchiha to continue this relentless push for power.

"Perhaps we should separate them from the village as you have suggested once before, I have thought much about it, they already have their own clan grounds. Perhaps giving them greater powers of self-governance would keep them busy enough for us to think of a more permanent solution.

"If only there was a powerful Uchiha who we could be sure was ultimately loyal to the village rather than the Uchiha who could be used to bridge the divide between us."

Homura made a small, thoughtful sigh as the two sat in silence for another long stretch before he spoke up again, blowing a large circle with his pipe smoke.

"What about Fugaku's son, Itachi? They say he is the most talented student in the academy since Nimakaze Minato, doubtless he will become a serious power in only a little over a decade or so. I daresay if The Professor himself were to take the boy under his wing now, well, they say a ninja's sensei is like a second parent."

"Hmmm, now there is an idea," Hiruzen responded thoughtfully, "but I don't exactly have the best track record as a sensei in terms of instilling loyalty to the village, what if all I succeed in doing is creating a monster for the other side to use against us?"

"You can't keep blaming yourself for Tsunade and Orochimaru, Hiruzen," his friend responded firmly. "Jiraiya is absolutely loyal to this village and is one of our greatest assets, his name alone acts as a deterrent from attack, Tsunade was once an even greater asset than Jiraiya until a series of heartbreaks beyond anyone's control finally tore her spirit, but everyone knows that she is still ultimately loyal to the village. Orohimaru was a monster beyond anyone's understanding, there is nothing you could have done to prevent him from going down the path he chose.

" The fact is, Hiruzen, your students each grew into three of the most powerful shinobi that this village has ever produced, and one of your students went on to train the most powerful shinobi this world has seen since the time of Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama. There is no one better to take Uchiha Itachi under their wing to train him into the next great protector of the village than you."

Hiruzen released a smoke-filled breath and took several minutes to think on his friend's words. No matter what anyone said, he would always blame himself for his failure with Orochimaru, and if he had only listened to Tsunade when she had advocated for greater medical training within the village, he had little doubt that she might have stayed, if only to take responsibility for her pet project.

So may regrets, so many failures, but, as Homura had pointed out, there are been triumphs as well. Perhaps he could learn from his mistakes and triumphs alike, in any case, this seemed the only way to prevent a catastrophic confrontation from becoming reality.

Finally, he replied with four words which would have farther reaching consequences than he could ever imagine.

"I suppose you're right."

**Well there's chapter one! I know it was a long time coming but I hope that everyone enjoys! Reviews and such are motivating.**


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